Disrupting Yourself

The once world dominant brand Nokia today has become absolute from the marketplace. The only reason for Nokia's downfall was its inability to innovate itself. In contrast, Apple and Samsung continuously innovated themselves to outperform every competitor in their industry. Same philosophy holds true for jobholders. Have you ever asked yourself what you are doing to innovate yourself?

Today's college students pride themselves for doing project works required by their curriculum. But there are schools where project works start from grade 2. These are the future candidates who we all have to compete with. They might be our juniors but their cognitive abilities will be twice as much as ours. But many of us carry the Nokia mindset, satisfied with our so-called experience that we have gained at our job.

It is amazing how some schools have integrated innovative teaching techniques in their classrooms. Children are learning theories through three effective models popularly known as VAK—Visual, Auditory, and Kinetics. We might have studied about germination in our Science class, but these innovative schools are teaching germination practically. Thus a question arises: Are we even going to survive, let alone be successful, while competing with these people?

Following are some of the tips for "disrupting" yourself for successful career.

PERSONAL INITIATION

Employees think that it is the job of the company to invest on them in terms of exposures and trainings to enhance their skills. One of the employees working in a reputed research firm lacked the skills to use GIS (a software used to produce maps and other graphic display of geographic location). With self-initiation he learnt the software after office hours using Google and YouTube. No wonder he is currently heading the research team of 20 at a very young age. Had he waited for the company to provide him with the learning opportunity, he would have been just another employee.

PERSONAL INVESTMENT

"If you double your investment in learning you will triple your earning." Update yourself. Read great books to broaden your horizon. Experience with reading habit makes you an interesting person. You can connect and impress your colleagues, supervisors and subordinates. Books such as 'Good to Great,' 'Outliers,' 'The Tipping Point,' 'Unleashing Nepal,' 'The Leader Who Had No Title,' and 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People' can be your starting point.

Moreover, irrespective of your faith, religious texts such as 'Bhagavad Gita,' 'Bible,' and 'Kuran' have also laid out great management and life skills to survive in this competitive marketplace. You will find your calling after reading any of these books.

GETTING COMFORTABLE WITH DISCOMFORT

Successful people such as Richard Branson and Steve Jobs always believed in getting out of their comfort zone. They did something that made them uncomfortable everyday. You might be uncomfortable approaching new clients, asking your boss for a challenging task, etc. But remember that at the most uncomfortable zone lays your biggest growth opportunity.

EMOTIONAL BANK ACCOUNT

Popularized by Steven Covey, emotional bank account is the amount of trust that's been built up in a relationship. Like bank account, emotional bank account also has two prime functions—deposit and withdrawal. You make deposits by being courteous, showing kindness, being honest, offering help, etc. You withdraw by showing disrespect, being rude, cutting others off, disregarding others, etc. The beauty of emotional bank account is that you can have some withdrawal moments like unintentionally being rude with a colleague, but it does little to hinder your relationship in case you've made enough deposits in the said relationship. Emotional bank account is one of the most important arsenals you can have to compete with the future generation.

Ultimately, disrupting is all about understanding yourself and understanding others. After you innovatively disrupt yourself, you also need to take appropriate actions in order to change the rule of the game. And if you do not change the rule of the game, someone else will change it for you. So don't wait, disrupt yourself.